The WGSN Futures 2017 Summit New York is over for another year leaving
us much to reflect upon. Futures is an annual day-long event held in seven
cities worldwide during which experts in global trend analysis take the
stage to address the overarching shifts in technology, culture, and the
marketplace which they have determined will shape tomorrow. In the audience
are designers, brand leaders, and business strategists united on their
permanent quest to stay relevant, grow, and anticipate the needs of future
consumers. In assessing where we stand currently we can position ourselves
for what’s next. So for easy digestion FashionUnited has decided to
separate the
day’s insights into a three-part review.

At a time when 44 percent of 16-34 year-olds are still more likely to
buy offline, the emphasis on the experiential aspect of shopping has become
so great it has become cliché, and ‘experience’ a buzzword, says Andrea
Bell, WGSN’s Director of Consumer Insights and Executive Editor. By 2020
experience will take precedence over price and product. Yet, conversely, by
2018 studies indicate we will have more connected devices than humans;
within 5 years super-augmented reality glasses will replace smartphones
according to Facebook; and by 2020 we will have 3 artificial reality
experiences per day says Apple’s Tim Cook. Other significant advancements
such as chips being inserted under the skin making our epidermis our
touchscreen will eliminate the need for devices and passwords, allowing us
to perhaps squeeze a freckle to answer our phone. ’Chip in parties’ have
arrived in the US from Scandinavia; experiments in a Johannesburg
university have connected a human brain to the internet, and Facebook have
begun to enable typing directly from our minds, giving new life to the
exclamation, ’Look mom, no hands!’

On the down side (if the previous paragraph isn’t terrorizing enough) a
recent study by Pew finds Millennials to be the loneliest generation in
history; Instagram was recently called out as the worst social media peril
to young people’s mental health; and the connection between social media
and bad marriages is ongoing with ‘social media ‘pre-nups’ outpacing all
other legal documents forbidding the upload of certain photos, or password
sharing, among other practices. How does all this reconcile itself? And
what will this solitary yet hyper-connected consumer buy?

Dawn of the ‘Mood Market’

The future consumer will be looking for anything to bring them out of
their isolation, to engage in human connection. We have already heard of
garments that give the wearer the sensation of a hug, knitwear that changes
color when the wearer is stressed, seratonin-based lipstick. Currently in
Amsterdam, a prototype winter jacket with a payment service enabled within
its design allows today's cash-free card-carrying citizen to donate money
simply by tapping the pocket. Donations will be managed by a homeless
shelter and the homeless wearer can redeem them for a meal, shower, or an
interview outfit. Futureproofing against AI, the global UBI (Universal
Basic Income) trials which offer every citizen a stipend, then challenges
them to think what they would do if they didn’t have to worry about money
is set to ripple through our culture if it can gain traction in the US. The
modern success story of Aerie which rose to prominence for its #AerieReal
ad campaign using real people as models with no filter or photoshop
enhancement resulting in both online success and increased footfall in
stores is considered a business model to advance further.

The Sharing Economy

Recent headlines blaring that by 2030 Millennials won’t buy anything
anymore would seem like a pretty conclusive conversation closer. It has
been well-documented that this consumer considers ownership a burden, is
more interested in stories than stuff, and purpose than
product. Their investment in borrowing over buying is leading to a See-Now,
Buy-Now, Sell-Now economy as evidenced every Thursday when new merchandise
drops at NYC’s Supreme store and customers are already discussing which
purchases will receive the most online resale interest as soon as they exit
the store. YEAY!, a ‘social shopping’ app that is a QVC/Snapchat/Tumblr
hybrid aimed at teenagers which allows users to upload videos of themselves
wearing OOTDs forming a social buying and selling community already has
Apple interest. Incidentally Supreme, along with Yeezy, are reported be the
site’s most in-demand brands. Depop is a mobile marketplace which allows
members to see what their friends and people they are inspired by are
liking, buying, and selling making everyone on it an influencer.

Troubleshooting Loss of Individuality

With all this sharing, the question becomes: is the consumer of the
future destined to lose their sense of individual identity? Since the
emergence of the teenager in the 1950s the notion of capturing one’s inner
spirit through one’s clothes has been key to an enjoyable shopping
experience, but will future consumers be uninterested in this psychological
aspect of dressing, prioritizing instead the communal? Will it result in
everyone looking like everyone else in some strange dystopian fashion
landscape? Suggesting otherwise are the projections around the industries
of tomorrow which indicate that 49 percent of worker activity could be
executed by robots, but only 18% of creative work can be automated. If the
future is creative, fashion won’t be forgotten, but how that manifests
itself remains in the hands of tomorrow’s designers. However collaborative
robots, or ‘Cobots’, will likely occupy the neighboring cubicle. Estimates
of global sales of these new office fixtures balloons from 120 million
dollars in 2015 to 12 billion dollars in 2025.

Post-Millennial and Beyond

Gen Z according to Forbes, make up 25 percent of the U.S.
population, making them a larger cohort than the Baby Boomers or
Millennials. Phones are still the link between these consumers and brands
and a survey conducted by WGSN reveals that they would rather lose their
wallets than their phones, consider cash obsolete but Apple Pay second
nature, and look forward to owning their own credit card. The first
generation wholly born in the new century, they are alert to being marketed
to, reject old-school manipulation, choose Youtube as their favorite
viewing channel, and put their phones facedown when ads interrupt their
content. Gen Zers do not respond to hashtags as a discovery tool but
instead as a search tool that allows them to track down their favorite Nike
product at the best price to the nearest location so they deliver all that
information to a parent who will facilitate the purchase. Gen Z’s viewing
tends to focus around everyday heroes and self-made or peer-made content.
Age compression makes today’s 9 year old as alert and aware as yesterday’s
12 year-old. Gen Alpha, children of Millenniums, born after 2011, had
devices as pacifiers, and according to the New York Times, ‘will
be the most formally educated generation ever, the most technology supplied
generation ever, and globally the wealthiest generation ever.’ By Alpha’s
end point of 2025, they are set to number 2 billion. That’s a significant
shopping base by anyone’s reckoning so now is a good time to start that
reckoning.

By contributing guest editor Jackie Mallon, who is on the teaching
faculty of several NYC fashion programmes and is the author of Silk for the
Feed Dogs, a novel set in the international fashion industry.